When Bose and Nehru wrote to each other
Subhas Bose wrote a 39-page letter to Nehru.
During the 1930s, apart from Gandhiji, Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose were the leading lights of the Congress. Temperamentally, they were like cheese and chalk.
Subhas Bose wrote a 39page letter to Nehru. In some ways, Bose overdid the functioning of Nehru and was too personal.
Nehru’s reply was restrained and more statesman like. Bose lacked Nehru’s elegant style.
I have briefly quoted from each letter.
Jealgora P.O,
Dt. Manbhum, Bihar,
March 28, 1939
My dear Jawahar,
I find that for some time past you have developed tremendous dislike for me. I say this because I find that you take up enthusiastically every possible point against me; what could be said in my favour you ignore. What my political opponents urge against me you concede, while you are almost blind to what could be said against them. In the course of what follows I shall try to illustrate the above.
Why you should have developed this strong dislike for me remains a mystery to me. On my side, ever since I came out of internment in 1937, I have been treating you with the utmost regard and consideration, in private life and in public. I have looked upon you as politically an elder brother and leader and have often sought your advice. When you came back from Europe last year, I went to Allahabad to ask you what lead you would give us. Usually, when I approached you in this way, your replies have been vague and non-committal... I am sorry that my letter has become so long. It will no doubt tire your patience. But I could not avoid it—there were so many things to say.
If I have used harsh language or hurt your feeling at any place, kindly pardon me. You yourself say that there is nothing like frankness and I have tried to be frank—perhaps brutally frank.
I am progressing steadily though slowly. Hope you are all right.
Yours affectionately Subhas
*****
Personal and Private
Allahabad,
April 3, 1939
My dear Subhas,
Your long letter of the 28th March has only just reached me and I hasten to reply. First of all I should like to say how glad I am that you have written to me fully and frankly and made it clear to me how you feel about me and about various incidents. Frankness hurts often enough, but it is almost always desirable, especially between those who have to work together. It helps one to see oneself in proper perspective from another’s and a more critical viewpoint. Your letter is very helpful in this respect and I am grateful to you for it.
It is not an easy matter to answer a letter which runs into 27 typed sheets and is full of references to numerous incidents as well as to various policies and programmes. I am afraid therefore that my reply will not be as full and detailed as it might be. To endeavour to deal with all these matters properly one would have to write a book, or something like it.
Your letter is essentially an indictment of my conduct and an investigation into my failings. It is, as you will well realise, a difficult and embracing task to have to reply to such an indictment. But so far as the failing are concerned, or many of them at any rate, I have little to say. I plead guilty to them, well realising that I have the misfortune to possess them. May I also say that I entirely appreciate the truth of your remarks that ever since you came out of internment in 1937, you treated me with the utmost regard and consideration, in private as well as in public life. I am grateful of you for this. Personally I have always had, and still have, regard and affection for you, though sometimes I did not like at all what you did or how you did it. To some extent, I suppose, we are temperamentally different and our approach to life and its problems is not the same.
I dare not now, in the early hours of the morning, write about my views in regard to national or international affairs. I am not silent about them as a rule. As you have observed, I talk rather a lot and write even more. I shall leave it at that for the present. But I would add that while I champion lost causes frequently and condemn countries like Germany and Italy, I do not think I have ever given a certificate of good conduct to British and French Imperialism.
I sent you, a day or two ago, some of the series of articles I contributed to the National Herald before Tripuri. One was missing. I am now sending the full set separately. I have not written any article for the Free Press Journal or any other paper recently. Yours affectionately
JAWAHAR
Shri Subhas Chandra Bose Congress President, PO, Jealgora, Dt.
Manbhum